Skip to main content

What is "Cinematic Style," Anyway?

Now that this endlessly procrastinated Tidewatcher project is past the hurdle-point, I thought it might provide a great opportunity to explain the term "Cinematic Style," since I use it repeatedly on my website to describe a specific type of photography. How is "Cinematic style" different than any other form of photography that uses lighting gear and creative camera angles?

Well, to make a long boring story somewhat shorter (but still boring), like many people I have wanted to make feature films ever since I was old enough to go to the movies and stare up at that big, silver screen. And, like many, I discovered soon enough that a home video camera and a handful of friends and neighbors standing under a halogen work-light does not exactly result in Hollywood-grade output. At least it didn't for me. I realized that I could create far better images using still photography. But why not make those images look like they came from a movie? Instead of having the subject sit there, posing and saying "cheese," why not take them out on location and have them 'act the role' of a character? All of the same lighting, props, and camera techniques used to make films could be used as well - just on a smaller, easier to manage medium. Hence my version of "Cinematic Style Photography" was born. Since that time I have discovered the work of photographers such as Gregory Crewdson, and Peter Lindbergh, who are truly masters of this concept on a larger scale, and whose work has convinced me that this is a viable approach to the art.

For me, Cinematic Style is a method of photography that turns a still image into a 'single shot movie.' We, the viewer, don't just see a 'picture of so-and-so', but an image that either tells a story, or allows us to create our own. Most of the time these will be single, stand-alone images. But sometimes, in the case of The Tidewatcher, it will be a series of shots, strung together in a sequence that tells the story. Either way, I hope you enjoy the idea and technique. And stay tuned to C.M. Franke Photography, for more Cinematic Style Photography!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Playing With Dramatic Light

I have this image that keeps recurring in my mind. It involves the cold blue feeling of a dark winter and the glowing orange of a firelight. So far it seems to keep eluding me, although I think this is largely because every attempt I have made to capture this "mood" has been done in a hurry, or in the rain, or some other situation that forced me to run through it rather than walk it out. This shot is one such version. I may need to go back with a slightly different lighting setup and try some more. Perhaps in a different location.

It's Not The Light, Its What You Do With It.

Standard soft-light shot with umbrella Snoot light for that film-noir look T his past weekend I had the opportunity to shoot with a very talented East Coast makeup artist, and an amazing model (!)            S ince I knew that I would be working in a relatively small space, and did not want to set up lots of plugged in lights, I used a Vivitar 285-HV speed light and bounce umbrella. Once we got the images we were after, but before we wrapped the shot and struck the set, I dropped a snoot on the light, swiveled it around, and tried my version of a "noir / vintage album cover" look. These are just quick samples of both styles, pretty much as they look straight from the camera. The refined, polished, edited versions will be coming up later - but it is nice to see that even a small and often overlooked "old-school" flash unit can still create pretty impressive light!

Be 'Practical' With Lighting

In Hollywood cinematography, there has been a sea-change over the last thirty years or so, away from "Studio style" lighting setups, to scenes and shots motivated by practical lighting. Gone are the days when a cowboy enters a barn, turns on one single lantern, and is blasted with pure white light coming from 12 different sources. But what does that sentence mean? "Motivating light using practical sources?" It sounds confusing and jargon-esque to the uninitiated. And how does it apply to still photography..?       To boil it down, "Practial lights" are any light sources that appear in the shot. A lamp. A streetlight. Car headlights. The idea being that if you have a person sitting next to a fireplace, or at a table lit by a lamp, that light source wants to predominate in the shot. So most of the light should look like firelight, or lamplight. And that [lighting] element should be clearly in frame. This does NOT mean that you should always rely solely on t...